Month: November 2019

This Thanksgiving week, I hope many are taking the time to be with family. But I also know this is a week to stop, process, and find new perspective on work life integration.

Through all my executive coaching initiates this year, there is a common theme, exhaustion! Leaders are working hard to drive change, maximize transformation, and deliver results. But as timelines are shortened, resources are conserved, and priorities continue to multiply, these leaders continue to take it all on themselves. The superhero mentality to try to “save the world“ doesn’t last long. Soon, the superhero is replaced by the exhausted hero. The firefighter that is scurrying from fire to fire trying to put out fires, but not seeing the big picture of how fires start.

And it is taking a toll on the American workforce. Exhausted Hero’s are taking less care of themselves and their balance. Check out this data from the U.S. Travel Association, Oxford Economics and Ipsos found that out of the 768 million vacation days in the U.S. were left unused in 2018. 236 million vacation days were completely forfeited with $65.5 billion in benefits lost. More than half of Americans (55%) failed to use all their time off in 2018. Are you one of the many Americans this week who is taking the minimal time off because “there is too much work to do?”

As you enjoy the Thanksgiving break, take time to evaluate how you are spending your time. Are you driving results, completing tasks, and serving as a technical expert? Or are you spending time managing your team, creating vision, and influencing change? If you are a leader of people, don’t be an exhausted hero. Be a strategic manager who delegates, influences change, sets vision, and most importantly coaches your people. It isn’t about achieving less. It is about using the team strategically to accomplish more.

The role of a Corporate Exhausted Hero is not a life sentence. It isn’t even decided by others. It is a choice you make: to lead or to do.

If you are lucky, you have leadership role models. For me, I have a few. And one of the best is Lynn Morris Wiggins.

I worked at a large national retailer that was implementing a whole new supply chain system. In that supply chain system, there was a new forecasting tool and a new replenishment process. Both were important for getting the right product, to the right store, at the right time.

Lynn Morris was a senior vice-president overseeing the project, and one of the best leaders I’ve ever worked for. She was a truly Strategic Manager. Lynn inherited and elevated a team of about twenty team members participating in this big change, with two expert Working Managers reporting to her. The first knew everything about forecasting in that organization, and then became an expert on how to use the new tool in forecasting as well. The second Working Manager worked on the replenishment side of things, on how to manage the supply chain.

Structuring her team in this way gave Lynn the ability as a Strategic Manager to step out of the details of execution. She was able to focus on influencing senior leadership and communicating what was coming next in the project. She got decisions out of them them early because she presented all ideas to them early. She was able to set a clear vision for the team of what they were trying to accomplish. She did this through monthly meetings, where the team collaborated together and reviewed, “How are we doing in our work to achieve these goals? Is there anything we’re doing that is against these visions?” Lynn did an excellent job leading change. She was always six to eight months ahead identifying and removing roadblocks.

In addition, Lynn coached her team. She did not get into the details of replenishment and forecasting, but instead coached those two Working Managers to truly own their projects and make decisions themselves. She didn’t tell them what to do, but she helped them think, and through that she was able to really make them empowered leaders who stood up for what they were doing and how they were doing it for the organization.

To this day, if Lynn Morris (now Wiggins) were to call anyone from that team and say, “Hey, I’ve got a job for you,” we would move our families to go work for her. Because she built trust, understanding, and excellence!

I asked Lynn once how she became a great Strategic Manager. She said she was a strong Working Manager who just kept taking on more and more responsibilities. She started thinking more strategically and became overwhelmed. She wished executive coaching was available, but was thankful she had multiple mentors who were able to provide advice. Over time, Lynn learned how to delegate and trust others. This gave her time to focus on strategic planning. Then, she learned to coach. As she became a senior leader, she spent time coaching her direct reports in becoming better leaders. And she supported their participation in executive coaching and leadership development programs.

Hopefully you have an example of a great leader like Lynn in your work history.   Take time to reflect on what characteristics and behaviors you need to display to be a strong Strategic Manager.

A Strategic Manager is somebody who has the complete buy-in of their team. They always look calm, cool, and collected, because they seem to know what’s coming and how to handle it. When a fire erupts, they immediately turn into the fire chief, rather than a firefighter. They organize the team’s command center (literal or metaphorical) before fires even start for strategy and response, similar to how emergency teams prepare for and respond to crises.

On a day-to-day standpoint, Strategic Managers spend a lot of time connecting with their teams, which builds a level of trust between those individuals that just doesn’t exist with an Exhausted Hero (aka. firefighter). Strategic Managers hold one-on-ones with individuals on their team, and check in on projects without diving in and being involved in the projects themselves. They don’t spend a lot of time in extra computer systems; they don’t even pull their own reports. They spend their days primarily in meetings and communicating via email.

If this sounds horrible to you, and exemplifies what you hate about leadership, you must realize that all these emails and meetings a have singular, powerful purpose: to mobilize.

Communication is the only way to mobilize teams. When strategically mobilized, a team can always achieve better results than a solo Exhausted Hero. That’s why Strategic Managers invest so much time and energy into connecting with their team, to mobilize efficiently and effectively.

When not mobilizing, Strategic Managers spend their days looking ahead, seeing what’s coming, and brainstorming how to influence the coming weeks and months. “This project is going to miss a deadline. How do I get that in front of the people that need to know about it now?” Or, “We’re going to need more resources on this project. Who can make time to help us?” Or, “We’re going to need to shift this to another plant. How do we do that? Let’s start thinking about that now.” They don’t wait until there are twenty-four hours left to address issues, because they see them coming in advance and can anticipate needs and resources.

If you are managing an Exhausted Hero who needs to elevate their skills to Strategic Manager, consider hiring an Executive Coach or implementing a Leadership Development Program for your company. They most likely will not figure it out themselves. Invest in your team today!